Dr. Xiong Zhang is the James A. Heidman Professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T). He received his Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University. Before he joined in the Missouri S&T, he worked at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and University of Cincinnati for 10 years. Dr. Zhang has been teaching and conducting research in the field of geotechnical engineering since 1992. His studies focus on development of advanced laboratory techniques to rapidly characterize geomaterials, constitutive modeling coupled hydro-mechanical behavior of unsaturated soils, numerical modeling of climate-soil-structure interaction, slope stability analysis, soil stabilization and ground improvement, and frozen ground engineering.

Dr. Zhang is currently the Chair of ASCE GI Shallow Foundation Committee, an editorial board member of Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Associate Editor for ASCE Journal of Cold Region Engineering. He is also a committee member of several nationwide technical committees. He received the 2016 International Innovation Award in Unsaturated Soil Mechanics from TC106 Committee on Unsaturated Soils within the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering.